BOSTON — Almost exactly four years ago in Leipzig, Germany, American hopes for success in the 2006 World Cup died — six months before the first ball was kicked. The occasion was the World Cup draw, the anxiously awaited playing assignments for the tournament’s 32 teams. And while the United States didn’t draw into the toughest of the eight groups — the group that is always dubbed “the group of death” — it landed in a group that promised near-certain death for the Yanks.

DUBLIN, Ireland ― Ireland just can’t catch a break these days. The economy is in the tank, the weather is atrocious and now the country has been robbed — by a Frenchman.

A movie tells the story of the greatest soccer coach in England to never coach the national team.

BOSTON — If you’re in this journalism business long enough, you are privileged, every once in a while, to play a small part in somebody else’s far more meaningful drama. About a year ago, I had a walk-on part in Michael Goldsmith’s life. A mutual friend had asked me if I might use my connections at Newsweek, where I worked for almost 30 years, so that Michael could share his story via the magazine’s popular “My Turn” column. As a result, last November it became his turn.